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Pain and temperature encoding in the human thalamic somatic sensory nucleus (ventral caudal): inhibition-related bursting mediates sensations evoked by somatic stimuli

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2007

J.H. Kim ,
D. Veldhuijzen ,
W.S. Anderson ,
J.-I. Lee ,
H.-T. Lee ,
S. Ohara  and
F.A. Lenz
J.H. Kim
Affiliation:
Dept of Neurosurgery, Korea University Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea
D. Veldhuijzen
Affiliation:
Dept of Biomedical Sciences, University of Maryland Dental School and University of Maryland Program in Neuroscience, Baltimore MD 21201, USA
W.S. Anderson
Affiliation:
Dept of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore MD 21287-7713, USA
J.-I. Lee
Affiliation:
Dept of Neurosurgery, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea
H.-T. Lee
Affiliation:
Dept of Neurosurgery, Taichung Veterans Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
S. Ohara
Affiliation:
Dept of Neurosurgery, Kyoto Kizugawa Hospital, Kyoto, Japan 610-0101
F.A. Lenz
Affiliation:
Dept of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore MD 21287-7713, USA
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Abstract

The responses of relay cells in the human thalamic ventral caudal nucleus (Vc) was explored in a set of experiments designed to study neuronal firing patterns evoked in humans by pain and thermal cutaneous stimuli. Cells responsive to cold or painful stimuli have been found to produce low threshold spike (LTS) bursting preferentially in response to these stimuli. This appears to be an intrinsic thalamic phenomenon and not a firing pattern produced by input from the periphery. Microstimulation within the Vc during awake surgical procedures demonstrates that cold and pain sensations can be evoked by short bursts of electrical stimuli in a pattern similar to that observed during neuronal LTS bursts. These results strongly suggest that that cold and pain sensations may be mediated in part by human thalamic LTS burst firing patterns.

Keywords

Somatic sensory nucleus of thalamushumanmechanoreceptionthermal stimulipainthalamus
Type
Research Article
Information
Thalamus & Related Systems , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , December 2005 , pp. 305 - 314
Copyright
© 2007 Cambridge University Press

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